


What Game Distraction has Wrought

by Eirenne Saijima (ladypoetess)



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Dubious Consent, M/M, Manipulation, Mind Games, Possession, Self-cest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-20
Updated: 2014-12-20
Packaged: 2018-03-02 10:11:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2808662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladypoetess/pseuds/Eirenne%20Saijima
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Italics indicate that Lahabrea is speaking, non-italicized indicates Thancred.</p>
    </blockquote>





	What Game Distraction has Wrought

**Author's Note:**

  * For [noctaval](https://archiveofourown.org/users/noctaval/gifts).



> Italics indicate that Lahabrea is speaking, non-italicized indicates Thancred.

_The pleasures of the mind and the pleasures of the flesh are nothing at all alike. Each has their draw, their particular flavors to savor, but neither can compare to the other. It is like trying to compare the feeling of breathing to the sound of rushing water; each one a powerful sensation, but nothing at all in common with one another._

_Perhaps, then, that is why we Paragons desire to take on physical form. We know intimately the pleasures of the mind, but the pleasures of the flesh are a foreign and tantalizing prospect to us. Rare is the chance to take on a body, and so I, from among the Overseers, was granted the opportunity to move about the physical realm. A mere pup of a mortal was exploring where he should not have been, and thus gave me the perfect chance and vessel for my own explorations. I had no way of knowing then just how delicious an experience awaited me._

  


I was working on an assignment for the Scions: investigate the Ascian threat. We were shorthanded and all of us overworked, but things that needed done really /needed/ to be done, and so when Minfilia asked for volunteers, I put forth myself. Y'shtola and Yda have always plied my ego with compliments about how extraordinary my talents as an Archon are, but I don't see quite how they can think it, truly. I'm nothing at all compared to the blazing fire that was Louisoix, though I try my hardest to do better, to BE better than I am.

My pride then, I suppose, was my downfall. In my quest to be ever better than I am, I tried to do more than I should. That led me to the assignment investigating the Ascians - alone, of course, because who else could compare to me? A foolish child I was, and I paid the price for my ways - as did everyone around me. Had I accepted help, perhaps things would have turned out differently... But I did not. I let myself believe that I could do it all on my own, and so opened myself to the influence of that very threat I was tasked with investigating.

  


_I wonder if you can hope to comprehend the delicious temptation it is to have a strong mind such as this mortal's laid open before you, ready to accept whatsoever you choose to give it. I suspect not. Foolish mortals; you think you can resist any pressure that is brought to bear, and perhaps you could if that pressure came from another of your own kind. We Ascians are a thing unknowable to you, and you cannot hope to give a fight more effective than that of a child against a trained warrior when faced with our like. Still, what amusement that, if I can simply overpower at will? As much as a physical form draws me for the pleasures it presents, I do not turn from the pleasures of the mind when it is such an enticing prospect to make a mind welcome me in. Why have a thrall when I could have something so much more fun?_

 

I was conducting my investigation in the desert of Thanalan, following the traces of aether that betokened the actions of something not quite mortal. I was alone, of course. Yda was dancing attendance on Papalymo - or perhaps it was the other way 'round; I'm never certain with those two. Y'shtola was occupied with matters in La Noscea. I suppose I could have asked for assistance from one of the others at the Waking Sands, but... It matters not. I was alone when Lahabrea came upon me.

It was something like the way Minfilia has described the Echo to me. I felt dizzy, light-headed, and then like I was being lifted away from my body. I had a moment to panic, but then a curious lassitude spread through me. Instead of fear I felt... intrigued? I must stress that I felt no physical sensations - I could tell that my body stood in the beating sun of Thanalan, still alone and unmolested, but I felt a curious touch along my mind and heard a deep and amused masculine voice laughing softly before I lost all awareness.

  


_The first step is to put him at ease. At least, enough at ease to relax his defenses. The crowning sin of your kind is curiosity; ever do you wonder what might be awaiting you, and so you set out to learn it for yourself without a thought for your own safety. At my first touch, his curiosity was piqued and gave me the moment of slackened defenses that was all I needed to slip inside. He faded then, unable to bear my presence long, and gave me my first chance to feel the weight of a body upon myself. He was strong, this mortal who called himself "Thancred," and my Ascian magic flowed unimpeded by his body. I left the heat of the desert with that selfsame magic and went to survey the plans I had in progress._

_I could tell when Thancred began to stir within the depths of his own mind again, and I returned with him to the desert. I could have kept control easily, but I was in no rush to see my plans accomplished, and I had time for a little sport. Instead, I drew myself back and watched as he regained himself and went about his own errands. In truth, riding silently behind his eyes gave me more intelligence than I would have anticipated. It gave me the next piece to the game, as well. If you wish to have a body, you must either be able to blend into the landscape where that body is found, or be willing to fight when you do not. There are times for each option, but the first was to be far more useful to me. I learned his mannerisms, his speech, his movement - all the things necessary to continue the game once I'd won the first round._

  


I didn't know, then, what had happened. I can piece it together now, of course, but at the time I thought it needs must have been too much sun and too little sleep combining to make me see spectres in the dust motes. In a way, it was; were that all it was. My actions then set the course that I and the Scions would face in the coming days. I returned to the Waking Sands to brief Minfilia on my findings, but I said naught of my experience in the desert that day. We went over strategic plans and orders, and I left to return to Ul'dah.

I was returning to my room that night, after a meal and some wine at Momodi's, when I felt that curious touch along my mind again. Unlike before, I did not feel darkness reach up to claim me immediately, and that deep voice returned.

_"Thancred."_

The one word; my name. As it echoed in my head, only then did the darkness draw me down into its depths.

  


_The game was only beginning. I had learned enough of Thancred's habits that day, as well as useful information on these Scions of the Seventh Dawn, that I felt able to move on to the next stage of the game, and thus I began to feel... impatient._

_I took his body to his room and carefully bolted the door against unexpected intruders. A chuckle escaped his - my - lips at that thought. I am the most unexpected intruder he could have, after all. The sound of our voice seemed to stir him again and I smiled._

_Stage two._

  


You are well familiar with the sensation of touching your own hand or arm or face, I'd wager. Of course you are - we all do that every day. I wonder, however, if you can imagine the sensation of touching your own face, but at the same time not being the one who is doing the touching. It is confusing, I grant. It was my face in the mirror; my hand resting lightly atop the mark on my neck. But it was not me who caused that hand to move. I wasn't sure if I should freeze like a frightened spriggan or fight as if I again faced the likes of the Imperial, Gaius. In the end, I think I stared at the reflection of my hand in the mirror and shook a little with the fear that felt like being dropped into the rivers that run through Coerthas.

  _"I am surprised, Thancred."_ That deep voice from before echoed in my mind as I heard my own mouth speak the same words. _"You do not thrash about and fight. Why?"_

 I stayed silent, not entirely sure I wasn't losing my mind.

  _"Come now, Thancred. You need not fear for your sanity; I am quite real. In your own way, you invited me in."_

 Somehow, I found the ability to speak, however much I clenched my teeth through it. "Who are you? What are you?"

  _"I am Lahabrea, one of the Ascians you have been investigating, and I wish to borrow you for a time. Well, not you in your entirety, just your body."_ The voice was amused in my head, the richness of the depth at odds with the sound of the voice my body produced.

 My anger at this violation burned away some of the shock and my voice felt stronger when I growled in reply, "Thal take you, Ascian."

 Laughter rang both in the room and within my mind as the little control I had was snatched away from me.

  


_The struggle of one who knows their body is not their own and that they are but a helpless passenger gazing through the windows of their eyes is a heady thing. I could feel the desire to squirm, to scream, to regain his control in any little way as Thancred was relegated to the back corner of my awareness, and it delighted me. I took my time, enjoying this physical form he had unwittingly gifted me with, feeling the muscles ripple and contract as I moved. Every time I would reach up to stroke the silvery hair on my head, or run my fingertips along my jawline, Thancred would darkly mutter imprecations upon my parentage. I could have pushed beyond that, however much he howled, but that would only rob me of the fun of the game._

  


I watched - only watched - as Lahabrea went about my life. I watched as he reported to Minfilia in the Waking Sands and as he worked with the Sultana and Monetarists in Ul'dah. However much I battered at the inside of my own mind, I could not sway his control. He would talk to me when none other was around, gloating over his plans and the opportunities my body would provide him. When I was too tired to fight back and provide him amusement, he would turn to physical taunts. Lahabrea knew and gloried in the discomfort I felt at his manipulation of my body. From bathing to idly combing my hair, he would deftly and patiently engage in whatever my body needed, taunting me all the while. Had his attentions not been primarily focused on his plans with the Garleans, I shudder to think of what he may have done. What he did was bad enough and I will forever be more vulnerable than most to the machinations of the Ascians and others like them.

  


_I lost control of Thancred during that debacle in the Praetorium, but he should not consider me gone. My impression is still there within his mind, simply waiting for me to slip back into it. There will come a day when his guard is down and his mind distracted. A day when I will take up the weight of a body and resume my game._

_  
One day._


End file.
